TWO PROSTITUTES
"Why not?"
"I'm crazy about places like that."
Giacomo did not reply, and she went on:
"Will you look me up if you come to Milan?"
"Where do you live?"
449
"I'll give you the exact address," she said, looking at him with
a sort of drunken satisfaction. "You can come whenever you like.
I don't believe in the sanctity of the home."
The man in black turned around and scrutinized them carefully.
Rina's neck and shoulders were held so stiffly that not even the
rocking motion of the tram could shake them.
"That wine of yours really went to my head," the girl said
after a pause. "It was good stuff, though...."
The tram came to a stop. Rina got up and without speaking
went toward the door. The man in black passed in front of her while
she waited there and again took off his hat. She nodded graciously,
as if she were grateful to him for this mark of respect after the sort
of talk she had heard from her sister.
"Where are you going?" called out Lori, getting up in her
turn. "Is it our stop?"
The sister said nothing, but got out, with Giacomo and Lori
following her. The tram went on and they were left in the midst
of a very large, flat, asphalt-paved space, surrounded on three sides
by tall apartment-houses with very few lighted windows. Straight
ahead of them two rows of lamps ran along either side of a paved
road apparently leading into an uncultivated area where there were
no houses in sight.
"Are we there?" asked the girl, looking around her. "I never
seem to recognize it."
The older sister waited until the man in black had walked away.
Then she said angrily :
"Yes, we're there. But I don't want you to stay with me ever
again."
"Why not? What's the matter?"
"I've told you often enough," said her sister, her anger
mounting as she spoke. "You might have the decency in the part
of town where I live and the tram I take every day not to carryon
that way. You talked nonsense all the way out here, and in such a
loud voice. ..."
